PSY 112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cortisol, Developmental Psychology, Mortality Salience
Document Summary
Evolutionary psychology is the study of evolution and how mental and psychological traits develop. It studies the way people go about passing on their genes to the next generation and the thought process behind it. Research is conducted by drawing comparisons from our lives today to our ancestors. In addition, evolutionary psychologists rely on anthropologists to gather useful data and on priming to understand mortality salience in people. A lot of research is done using animals, but some is done using measurements of the body or bodily functions such as cortisol levels. Interviews and surveys can also be given to people, when studying aspects related to developmental psychology. The article uses the method of priming, which activated mortality salience, to conduct research in the field of evolutionary psychology. In study 1, after being primed participants looked at pictures of the face and determined trustworthiness based on facial structure.
